The Cutie Mark Chronicles Collection
by Umbreonmoonspy
Summary: All the cutie mark stories you've never heard. Chapters will be added at the request of the readers
1. The Wizards Assistant

**Hello everypony! welcome to the cutiemark chronicles collection, where I have found out how all of your favorite ponies got their cutie marks, but only the ponies****_ you_**** request will be added! So if you like my first chapter, tell me what backgroud pony or minor character you want to hear the cutie mark story for! I, Autumn Breeze, will happily tell you through a variety of sources. Thank you and enjoy**

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My dearest Dinky, this story is for you, my daughter. It is a story that I have wanted to tell many times, but have never been able to. I hope that writing it down will help. That even if I cannot find it in myself to give it to you, you will find it someday. It is a story of my past, and my cutie mark.

Many ponies wonder about it, I hear them whispering sometimes, I know you hear them too. Whispers of the clumsy pony with bubbles on her flank. So far I haven't told anypony the truth, so finally, here it is.

I was born with Strabismus, as you know. This means that my eyes point in different directions and affect my depth perception, a problem which still causes my occasional clumsiness. I remember my first day of school. I had my supplies all ready to go and my father, Jelly scone, dropped my off bright and early. I never told you that he used to run a bakery. Not a bakery for desserts, like the Cakes have, but one for simpler goods like bread and muffins. He also made jelly, he loves jelly. But anyway, we said goodbye at the door and I turned to go inside. I was so excited. When I ran in I tripped on a loose floorboard and fell flat on my face. Luckily nopony else had arrived yet so only my teacher, Miss Prose, saw. She helped me up kindly and told me to pick a seat. Even though none of my classmates were there I had still been embarrassed so I sat shyly in the back right corner. There were only eight other students in my class that year, Daisy chain, Berry punch, Cottontail, Cobalt, Raindrops, Roseluck, Rarity and your teacher, Cheerilee. The rest of the day didn't get much better. Whenever whenever anypony came in it seemed the first thing they saw was my eyes. They all stared at me before sitting down and the last seat to be filled was the one next to mine. It was finally filled by Roseluck who said hi, then promptly ignored me the rest of class. At recess I fell off the swing and I heard quiet giggles from the direction of Cobalt, Cottontail, and Daisy chain who were inseparable from the first day day of school until the last. That's when Raindrops came over. She had been quiet during class, unlike everypony else, so I hadn't really noticed her. She looked cross at first, stomping over, so I thought she was going to yell at me for something but soon she threw her defiant look at the three snickering fillies who quieted in surprise. When she turned back her expression had softened and she helped me up. Soon we became great friends. Back then, Raindrops was a lot like she is now, determined, kind, and willing to laugh at her own mistakes. She helped me to ignore the bullying.

Still, I was happy to get home. Most days I would help my father at the bakery until mom got home. I loved baking with him. He never got mad, even when I broke things or slipped the ingredients. He would just laugh good naturedly and we would clean up, if mom got home early she would help. You've only met my mom, Velvet rose, once when you were a baby so you probably don't remember her. She was rarely around because she was a fashion model but when she was home she would always make time to play me before tucking me into bed.

That's where the background ends, I think, and where the real story begins.

It was a few years later, if I remember right. There were more ponies in my class but not many more. I spent most of my time outside of home with Raindrops but the bullying was getting worse. Not everypony teased me of course, but those who did were relentless. There was one day that was particularly hard.

That day had been a nonstop disaster. First I tripped going up to do a problem on the board, then I did the problem incorrectly. At recess We were playing tag and I ran into a tree. I was 'it' for the rest of recess. We went back inside and as soon as I started to take notes my pencil broke. I didn't have any more so I tried to ask Roseluck for one but I only got in trouble with miss Prose for talking in class. When class finally let out everypony else was picked up but both of my parents were busy so I walked home alone, in a hail storm. I could have flown but my father is an earth pony and my mom didn't have much time to teach me so I wasn't very good at it. I was so tired when I got home that I went straight to my room for some rest and didn't come down until dinner.

Dad smiled at me to make sure I was alright before we started eating and I smiled back. He and mum soon struck up a conversation while I pushed my food around on my plate. I wasn't really paying attention until I heard them talking about a wizard. It was strange because, while all unicorns can do magic, most are not referred to as 'wizards'. WIzards are unicorns who specifically study magic in all of its forms, including usual unicorn magic, potions and other forms of arcane powers, though I didn't know this then. I soon learned that the unicorn was residing in the Everfree forest, an odd place to chose to live, and was looking for an assistant. That days events had gotten to me. I decided immediately to go and be a wizards assistant.

I told my parents after dinner. They were certainly surprised, but I don't think I noticed at the time. They both tried everything they could think of to make me stay but in the end they let me go. They probably assumed that when the wizard saw that I wasn't a unicorn he would send me back home, but they were wrong.

I left early the next morning. I hadn't really thought about going into the forest, actually I really hadn't thought much about about my plan at all, but now that I was there I was definitely scared. My mother had insisted on going with me despite her busy schedule, she knew perfectly well what kinds of things lived in the forest. As a filly the dark forest was the most frightening thing I'd ever encountered. More than once I was sure I saw monsters but none of them bothered me during my trip, maybe they don't like the path. Whatever the reason was, we finally reached the steep hill, not quite tall enough or rocky enough to be a mountain, with a door in its side.

After shooing my mother away (though she revealed later that she had stayed hidden just out of my sight to make sure She could help if I needed it) I stood there for probably ten minutes trying to build up the courage to knock before a loud groaning and clanging noise accompanied the opening of the door. in the doorway stood a very imposing stallion his coat was black and his mane shimmered gold as if made of molten fire. His pointed hat and cape were of an old and simple style, but what struck me most were his eyes. They were red, bright and deep, and seemed as if they could stare into a ponys soul just by looking at them. I might have given up and run away right then if not for his smile. Oh Dinky, if only you could remember your father, he had a smile like that, all kind and caring, as if in that moment you are most amazing pony in all of equestria.

I realized, after a while that he was waiting for me to speak so I managed a stuttered explanation as to why I had come. Contrary to what my parents had thought would happen the stallion only smiled wider and welcomed me inside. The entrance corridor, and in fact the entire house, was made of stone, as if it had simply been carved right out of the hill itself, and it probably had.

The next couple of months were filled with too many activities than I care to explain at this time, but each task required many skills that I had not needed before, and a few that I had. THe most important skill was a good memory for names of reagents and areas where they could be found. Though I never quite understood the usual directions such as North and South I could easily locate landmarks and recall properties of plants. My memory later landed me my job as a mailmare.

Of course the skills I developed did nothing to improve my occasional clumsiness, but it never really mattered with the wizard, who had introduced himself as Ebony comet and who I simply called Ebony, around. He never treated me as inferior or incompetent as my classmates had. He would simply help my fix whatever mess I had made and moved on. When I wasn't feeling self-conscious about my flaws, I was able to focus more on the task at hoof.

There were some days, however, when my assistance wasn't needed and on those days I explored. There were many complex cave systems behind the main work area and I quickly took to searching them. Mostly they were empty, but the occasional gemstone clusters or glowing mushroom kept me interested.

One day I discovered a particularly vast chamber. It was too large for my light to reveal anything, so I went deeper inside. At first there was nothing, but after what felt like endless searching a movement chased away my discouragement. Something cold and smooth had bumped against me, but floated away before I could see what it was.

I must have been away for quite some time because Ebony had gone looking for me and found me in the cave. I told him what I had felt and he asked if I would like to see it. He then sent up a light from his horn, much brighter than the one I had brought, and it illuminated the cave.

Countless floating orbs were revealed. At first I thought they were unusually large bubbles, but I was wrong. Each was a different size and reflected the light differently. Sometimes the bumped into each other, and when they did they momentarily changed color and let out a crystalline note before returning to their colorless, silent form. One floated near to me and in it I saw the image of a pony. It was not my reflection, but another filly intently studying a book. I reached to touch the orb and when I did It shone magenta, letting out a high note, but I was surprised. The orb that had brushed me earlier had been cold, but this one burned like ice and I quickly withdrew from it.

Ebony explained that these were the reason he had come to reside in the everfree. When he was a young foal he had seen one floating past his home. He followed it for a while, seeing the pony in its surface, and after it had floated away he became determined to find more. When he had found a whole cave full of them, he knew he had to stay and study them, each one different, each one with a different and very real pony shown in its surface.

After that we spent weeks studying the orbs together. It was our main focus until the day I left. I would have stayed longer, but for two orbs I saw one swirled around each other, crashing together occasionally, turning the orbs blue and purple and sending out a mournful chiming. In the orbs I saw my parents. They were sitting on our couch together, reading my latest letter and crying I couldn't hear them, the orbs didn't work like that, but I could tell why they were sad. I had to go home.

After I returned to ponyville I was happier than I had ever been. The teasing didn't stop, but I didn't mind it as much. I even came to accept their mean nickname, Derpy, to be as much my real name as Ditzy is. It was all because of the orbs. I was able to ignore the teasing and make more friends because every time I saw somepony I thought of them, hidden away in a cave. Each one unique. Each one beautiful in its own way. I wanted to show that to everypony. Make them feel special and amazing and beautiful. Even if they never see what I saw, Even if they think my cutie mark is just 'bubbles', thats okay, because I know. And now so do you, my sweet filly.


	2. The Anthropologist

Hey everypony, Autumnbreeze here with another entry into our cutie mark chronicles

Suggested by bronymon

This entry is taken from a recording of my interview with Lyra Heartstrings

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-Is this being recorded?

-Cool!

-So, why am I here again?

-You want to hear how I got my cutie mark? Awesome! I've been itching to tell somebody that story for years!

-Huh?

-Oh, yeah, somebody. That's what humans say instead of 'somepony', have you heard of humans?

-Really?! You have?! Oh wow that's so cool! most ponies haven't, and the ones that have don't think they're real. Are humans going to listen to this when you're done recording it?

-Oh, right, my cutie mark story, sorry about that. It all started when I was just a little filly. Nobody in my class had their cutie marks yet so I wasn't in any rush to get mine, although, now that I think about it, I wasn't in a rush to get one even after most of them had theirs. But anyway, I was in the library one day with Bon bon, she's my roommate now but we were friends even way back then. She wanted to see if they had any books with recipes in them, Bonbon loves to bake, especially candy. She makes the best candy!

While Bonbon was searching through a few books in the cooking section I kind of got bored. Libraries are so quiet and nothing ever really exciting happens there. For a while I just followed her around but pretty soon I may have wandered off just a little bit. Or a lot. It was a big library.

Then I found a book, an amazing incredible wonderful book, although I didn't know it at the time. What caught my attention was the picture on the cover. It was something I had never seen before, a hand! If you've ever seen a minotaur, you know what hands are. These weren't like minotaur hands though, they were smaller and more delicate, as well as being a tanish color. I could tell the book hadn't been read in a long time because when I picked it up a cloud of dust flew I the site and I had to stop and cough before I could read the book.

It was a book about humans! I'd never heard of humans before, but I was instantly hooked. At first I only looked at the pictures. I didn't used to read a lot and I still don't if I can't fund anything on humans so I wasn't a very good reader. The pictures were amazing though! They had so much detail and even though I didn't know what they were I thought they were beautiful.

After only a few pages I decided to try and actually read the words but I didn't get very far because Bonbon came looking for me. She said it was time to go home but saw the book I had and asked about it. I told her everything I had read and seen so far, vary edited to share it with her, but she said it sounded weird and turned to leave.

We checked out our books, though Bonbon said I shouldn't get the one about humans, and went back home.

Over the next few weeks I read the book cover to cover all by myself. I didn't tell anyone about the book, I didn't want them to think I was an egghead, but ponies began to notice changes in my behavior. I had started mimicking thing depicted by the book, like sat and did stuff without magic. My parents didn't mind much until it started affecting my piano lessons. My parents said that music was an important part of a sophisticated unicorns life and so I had to pay an instrument, at least until I got my cutie mark. When I stopped using magic they were unhappy and scolded me. The next time I tried to play the piano my hooves were you big and I kept hitting all the keys at once. That's when my parents lost it. When they realized they could not convince me to use my magic again they took me to a psychiatrist. He was supposed to help.

The lessons were long and boring and the pony refused to let me leave until I sat the "correct" way, with all for hooves under me. Eventually I started playing along just do I could get out of there faster but eventually something slipped. I don't know how it happened but somehow he got me talking about humans and hands and he told be a bunch of stuff like that they weren't real and I got very mad and the pony refused to see me after that, which was fine with me. My parents took my book away though, which was not. Soon enough I started using magic again, nor having hands makes it a real hassle to be magic-less, I don't know how you pegasi and earth ponies manage it, but whenever I used my magic on anything I kept seeing fingers in the waves. I even used magic on my hooves when no one was around to give myself the illusion of having hands.

-I'm getting to that part, be patient. My obsession and new habits seemed strange to some ponies so after a while the only friend I had left was Bonbon, though she told me I was weird too.

One day we were walking home when we passed a poster advertising a ballet recital in a few days. Humans had ballet too, at least according to the book, do I begged my parents to let me go with Bonbon.

It was amazing. Everybody loves it but I think I enjoyed it the most because I could appreciate that all the ponies in the ballet stood completely upright, on their hind legs! Like humans! I had tried a few times the stand but it is a lot harder than it looks.

All the music in the ballet was done by a pony with a harp. I thought if I could play the harp then I could be close to the ponies who stood like humans. When my parents heard about my new interest they immediately let me drop piano lessons and went to buy me a harp. The only problem as playing a harp requires you to stand which, as I've said before, I am none too good at. I kept knocking Harps over in the store from leaning on them too much until finally the store owner had an idea. He went to the back and brought it a lyre, which he said ids just like a harp but smaller, so you hold it with your magic. When I saw it I could just picture human hands flying over the strings.

I quickly grabbed it and started plucking strings. My parents clapped for my music and the store owner smiled because I wasn't destroying his instruments any more. It wasn't long before my cutie mark appeared. A week, tops. Everybody was so proud of me, my parents threw me a party and everything, with cake and all of my best friend there.

-So, um... that's about it, are we done now?

-Great! Can you tell me about humans now?


	3. The Songsmith

Taken (with permission of course) from Octavias diary. Only relevant entries were taken.

suggested by Blazing Bright Streak of Light

Please note that in my headcanon ponies age the same as humans (except for the princesses), they are _magic _ponies after all.

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Octavias diary

Age 5

Deer Diary,

Mother and Father gave me this diary for my birthday today, it was verry nice of them. I am suposed to rite down importent events and how I feel in it. They sed tomorrow I will start school. I am being home skoold so it will not be very difrent from befor. They sed it is verry importent for a Canterlat filly to hav a good edukasion and they dont skools with ther dater. I wonder if Mother and Father will bee good teechers. They luv me but they are very strikt.

Age 5

Dear diary,

I have recently taken to playing the chello. It is a beautiful instrument and mother and father call it 'sofisticated'. At first it was very difficult. Playing the chello requires me to stand on my hind legs, a surprising amount of instruments do, but even more difficult is that I have to hold the chello stick, I mean 'bow', with my hooves. I can only use one hoof because I use the other one to hold the cello. Mother says it will be easier after I practice moor, I hope she's right.

Age 7

Dear diary,

My birthday is in a month, I will be turning eight. It Is quite exciting. In my birthday I will be giving a performance on my cello, it will be my first performance. I do hope I will get my cutie mark then. Ever since I started playing it has felt as though the cello was right for me, although I do feel that something is missing. Perhaps I shall figure it out once I perform.

Age 7

Dear diary

There is little less than a week until my cello recital. My parents are becoming increasingly excited. Though I practice often I only grow in nervousness. What if something were to go wrong? So much could go wrong. What if I am not meant to pay the cello?

Age 8

Dear diary,

What am I to do? My recital was today. The composition I performed was a slow, deep one. I thought I played well, everypony clapped, my parents told me it was lovely, but I did not receive my cutie mark. I was certain this was what I was meant to do. While I was playing I could almost forget the feeling of something which was wrong. That feeling just have been right though. Perhaps I should start looking towards other things.

Age 8

Dear diary,

Perhaps the cello is not what I am meant for, but I want to play one more time. I wish to pay simply for my parents, but first I must choose a composition and learn it. All the music I have heard from the cello is deep, in bass clef, but that is not the type of song I want to pay for mother and father. If I cannot find the music I am searching for, I will write my own.

Age 8

Dear diary,

I have done it! I wrote a piece to perform for mother and father. It it's written in treble clef so as not to sound gloomy and though it shall be more difficult to play than the piece at my recital I have been practicing diligently since its completion. I believe I shall perform it later this day

Later

It turns out I shall not have to search for a new Destiny after all. I performed for my mother and father the song I composed. They loved it. They cried. They cheered. So did I. As I performed I felt the strange feeling, which had been with me since I started playing the cello, leave. It felt nothing but right as I played the music which I had written. It was such a pleasant feeling that I almost did not notice when my cutie mark appeared. I think I shall write more songs which are in the treble clef, the high notes seen to fit me better.


End file.
